Lenore Taylor

ABC Online

TONY ABBOTT wants a nationwide ban on takeaway alcohol sales in Aboriginal communities and has threatened a referendum on the issue if the states refuse to give him the power to impose it.

He also proposes the $5.5 billion in federal funding for remote Aboriginal housing be contingent on communities forcing children to attend school and reducing alcohol abuse. And he wants three-quarters of mining royalties to be paid into an "indigenous future fund" for large projects, rather than to individual communities.

Budget savings would be made by halving the spending on consultation and complaints processes under the Northern Territory intervention, which the Opposition Leader said were just a way of "funding opposition and creating obstacles".

The ideas were included in a detailed submission Mr Abbott made to the Coalition's expenditure review committee in November, just days before he was elected leader.

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